seeks to redress this. An introductory chapter critically reviews the theoretical assumptions and pitfalls of twentieth-century approaches to communication and conventionalisation. The successive chapters are by scholars from different theoretical backgrounds within language and literature. They study the processes of conventionalisation from the complementary perspectives of linguistic and literary research traditions and cover a diverse field of cognitive, social, and historical aspects of language.

The target readership of the book is scholars and students of language and communication – including literacy and literary studies and philosophy of language – who are interested in foundational issues and their profound implications for empirical analysis.